Finding my Parents in Another World-Chapter 63: (Raorka) Knight

"H..how?" Jareth stumbled backwards, falling down on the ground. Instinctively his hand was raised, the barrels of his weapon on the ready. But it seemed like he had lost all his appetite for a fight.

The Demon of Lust walked forward nonchalantly, each of her steps echoing repeatedly in Raorka’s head.

"How can I expect maggots like you to understand? Do ants understand how an elephant moves?" She was enjoying it now, revelling in her strength and the despair her return had aroused in them. Raorka was desperate to not show any weakness to this monster, but he still couldn’t stop the incessant chattering of his teeth.

Artemis was the only one who looked comparatively unfazed, even though her face had been scrunched up with shock when the Demon had first spoken. She stood back up, holding her spear with her right hand, aimed straight at the Demon.

"Demons die when they are decapitated. How did you survive?" She asked in a calm voice.

The Demon smiled. "Have any of you ever, ever seen a named Demon die? Of course none of you humans possibly could have, but have you Elf? You spoke about the Night of Lisa, yes? Were you actually there on that Night? Did you actually witness the named Demon being killed?"

Artemis was silent. From the expression on her face, Raorka surmised that th answer to all the questions was no.

"No answer? Well I guess that is an answer in itself." The Demon spread her arms, and tilted back her head, her expression that of profound joy.

"Named Demons are functionally immortal. We CANNOT be killed, not by decapitation nor by skewering, not even by being burnt. We will always regenerate, always come back. Our kind is older than the planet itself. You think you can kill a planet? No, no, it is clear you have confused us for lesser Demons."

Artemis clutched her Spear, hard enough that the veins in her arm bulged outwards.

"Nothing is unkillable." She said quietly, almost as if she were trying to convince herself rather than the Demon.

The Demon of Lust brought her head down. Her eyes were slanted in a sleepy expression, but her mouth widened into a grin.

"Oh poor you. Stuck with the inferior form of immortality. Or not even immortality, just a long lifetime. Unlike me, Elf, you WILL die when I chop off your head." She casually extended her hands and the two purple whips were back in her hands.

She started rotating her hands, the whips in them rotating counterclockwise, picking up speed. Soon it was like two flaming purple wheels extending from her hands. Smiling she let go of one of the whips, which rocketed forwards in its destructive path towards Artemis. Without waiting for that impact, the Demon immediately started running forwards behind that, with the other whip still rotating with extreme force on her right hand.

"Januin." Artemis said softly, herself holding the Spear horizontally in front of her. A light shield materialized in front of her, growing larger and larger, just in time for the rotating whip to crash against it with a fearsome bang. Laughing maniacally, the Demon was next, jumping over the loose rotating whip, attacking the elf when all her energy was taken up in defending from the threat in front of her.

"DIEEEEE!" The Demon shouted as she fell.

No.

Raorka felt a surge of energy, in his legs and his arms. Just a while back he couldn’t even stand up due to the wound on his stomach, but all the pain and hurt from that moment seemed to go away. Without taking its name, [[Beast of the Land]] was activated, the cloak billowing on his back and his sword already drawn.

And then, faster than he ever thought possible, he was up in the sky and in front of the Demon and her whip. He twirled around to dodge the initial strike of the surprised Demon, and gracefully manuevered himself so that he was parallel to the falling monster. In a single movement, he slid up his sword and drove it in the Demon’s neck with a satisfying slice.

The Demon stumbled in the sky and fell haphazardly, blood gurgling from her throat. Raorka twisted and landed beside Artemis, who had destroyed the other whip by that time. He didn’t look at his mentor though, keeping his eyes fixed in front where the Demon was already regenerating from the wound.

"Good, good. Struggle more. It’s more satisfying to kill people who struggle. Unlike these stupid fools who have already given up." The Demon turned around to gesture towards Jareth and Drisnen, but just as she turned around a hail of wood bullets tore through her. For a moment the Demon couldn’t move in the force of a thousand bullets piercing her body, and therefore flapped around like a ragdoll amidst the storm of bullets.

Once the hailstorm subsided, the Demon’s body riddled with wooden bullets plopped down on the ground. Jareth stood panting on the opposite side, his wooden barrels still smoking from the assault.

"No one has given up to you monster." He practically spat out the words.

"No, maybe not." The Demon conceded as she stood up. As Raorka watched horrified, her deformed face and body filled up in seconds, and before long she stood there smiling. And unblemished.

"But it doesn’t matter now, does it?"

Artemis stepped forward, her expression grim. She whispered to Raorka, "Listen here Raorka. We can’t beat this monster."

Raorka looked up in shock at the elf, but she just gestured at him to keep looking forward.

"You can’t mean that." Raorka hissed back.

"LISTEN to me Raorka. The time for heroics is not now. We have to be pragmatic. This is a monster that we can’t kill. That is the ugly truth. Now do you want the entire town to be annihilated because you can’t accept that truth?" Artemis’ tone was unexpectedly harsh, but Raorka had no rebuttal. He had no plan to defeat this monster, who could even heal a chopped off head.

"So what’s your plan then?" He asked dejectedly.

"Evacuate."

"Evacuate? The Demon will easily catch us."

"No, she will not. I will hold her off. You need to evacuate the entirety of Temuril."

Raorka looked at her with shock. "You can’t mean that?!"

"Oh but I do."

"What happened to we can’t kill the Demon?"

"I don’t have to kill her, just hold her off until everyone has left."

"You will die."

"No I won’t. Or rather I don’t plan to. After all, I have the Word of Power still with me." Artemis looked at him with a kindly smile. From her expression it was clear that she didn’t really expect to survive this battle of attrition. Raorka gritted his teeth.

I can’t.

I can’t leave her here to die.

"You are not leaving me here to die Raorka." Artemis said, reading his thoughts. "You are saving the most number of people possible."

Then she turned around, not waiting to hear Raorka’s answer. Her Spear gleamed at her side as she strode forward. The Demon turned her attention back towards the Elf and smiled.

"Come on then. Show me your power." She said.

Plop.

Everyone stopped. The Demon of Lust frowned, and looked down at the object which had just fallen in front of her. She bent down leisurely and picked it up, examining it. From the distance, Raorka saw that it was a coin.

Bang!

None of them were prepared for it. The coin erupted in a burst of molten sparks, in the Demon’s hands. The shockwaves rippled through the air, as the blast reverberated through the grounds. In an instant there was a rain of coins from over the Demon, and each one of them exploded right as it came close to the Demon.

Screaming in pain the Demon rolled out of the way, but it wasnt fast enough. She was bombarded with flying and exploding coins. She whipped around her weapons uselessly, trying to deflect them but it was of no use. There were too many coins, and unlike the bullets, each of them exploded on contact. Soon enough the Demon’ entire body was third degree burned, and Raorka could smell the disgusting stench of burnt flesh from where he was standing.

"Is this your..?" Raorka asked Artemis in wonder, but the elf was equally shocked.

"Reveal yourself coward!" The Demon screamed out, still trying to dodge or deflect the exploding coins in vain.

"That does not seem like a wise move, Demon." A female voice wafted through to them. Raorka peeked around behind the Demon.

There was a young woman sitting on a chair some distance away. She was covered in armor except for her head. She had long, flowing red hair almost upto the ground when she was sitting. From her face, she looked like she was in her late twenties. There was a grace and nobility in her face that contrasted sharply with the brutality of her actions.

"Hello there." She called out as she slowly got up from the chair, as the Demon screamed in the background.

"Identify yourself wench!" The Demon shouted shooting bolts of purple energy haphazardly towards the woman.

"Oh surely. I am the Emperor Knight Vermillion of the Coin."